A collection of dust from the NWA 11474 meteorite.
Specimen Name: Northwest Africa 11474
Specimen Type: Lunar (Feldspathic Breccia)
Location of Find: Mauritania, Northwest Africa
Date of Find: 2017
Perfect as a gift! Who wouldn’t want to own a piece of the Moon?
NWA 11474 was discovered on May 10th 2017 where it was purchased by Dustin Dickens and Mendy Ouzillou from a Mauritanian meteorite dealer. The entire meteorite is less than half a kilogram in weight meaning that this dust is very rare!
NWA 11474 is classified as a “Lunar” meteorite because it originated from our very own Moon. Its classification as “feldspathic” means that the meteorite contains feldspar, which are aluminosilicate minerals containing varying amounts of potassium, sodium and calcium. the classification of “breccia” means that this meteorite is made from rocks made from fragments of older rocks that have been broken apart and glued back together by impacts on their parent body in this case the moon. This makes NWA 11474 among the rarest types of space rocks as the stones have to be blasted off the lunar surface by asteroid impacts where they become captured by the earths gravitational field and fall down so we can collect them.
NWA 11474 was a dark grey meteorite which has no fusion crust at all. If you looked at a cross section of NWA 11474 you would see a fragmented dark grey interior interspersed with white feldspathic clasts. It is comprised mostly of these feldspathic clasts and shock melt with lesser amounts of fragmental pyroxene and olivine. Pieces ranging from 20g to 30g have been discovered along with smaller pieces of 3g to 10g and the dust that we sell at Space Store.
Our Lunar Dust comes in a small glass bottle with a small cork in the top which can be connected to a chain to be worn around the neck or kept on a mantle for showing off to your friends. You will also receive a Specimen Identification Card for you to display at home.
More information about NWA 11474 can be found at The Meteoritical Society website here.
